In a monologue narrative, the speech floor is by and large occupied by an
individual speaker; rarely are verbal interactions between interlocutors observed.
Inaccurate utterances, if there are any, are seldom corrected by addressees so that the
speaker’s positive face can be maintained in public. Without listeners’ active
utterance-checking activities to ensure the appropriateness of their speech, addressers
tend to self-monitor their words attentively while doing their presentations. As speakers
are monitoring their speeches, a number of pragmatics particles are uttered
sub-consciously. In this study, function, distribution, and frequency of those
self-monitoring devices in monologue narratives are focused on. The data of the
present investigation were collected from students’ presentations and professors’
lectures in a university located in northern Taiwan. In this corpus, the Chinese markers
heh, hao, N1, and dui as well as the English markers alright, right, okay, yeah, and yep
are observed. These particles can be functionally classified into four
groups—self-confirmation markers, self-assurance markers, current-utterance
completeness markers, and utterance-internal completeness markers. These markers’
pragmatic functions are not arbitrarily derived; instead, they are highly grounded on
their lexical interpretations. Restrictions on forming compound monitoring
mechanisms and how those pragmatic functions are derived from their lexical
interpretations are also discussed.